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Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the morphological structure of the plot and the set of characters of four Russian variants of tale type ATU 425C, Beauty and the Beast, and a comparison of the main stylistic features of the Russian folktale variants with Sergei Aksakov’s literary rendition, “Alen’kii tsvetochek” (The Crimson Flower). The essay combines Vladimir Propp’s syntagmatic model of structural analysis with a symbolic analysis and information on the cultural context of versions of Beauty and the Beast. The influence of eighteenth-century French literary tales of the 425C tale type on Russian folktales and Aksakov’s rendition are also discussed.